Opportunity

Telemedicine can create new efficiencies in health care delivery, lowering overall health care costs and allowing providers to serve a broader population. If insurers can adopt a new model for medical reimbursements, health care providers can take full advantage of technology advancements with potentially lower costs.

Currently, there is no single widely-accepted standard for telehealth reimbursement among private payers or state Medicaid programs. Some value the benefits of telehealth and will reimburse a wide variety of services. Others have yet to develop comprehensive reimbursement policies.

We have the opportunity to initiate a pilot insurance reimbursement model that allows health care providers to implement new telemedicine solutions for improved health outcomes.

Solutions

• Work with key partners, including Blue Cross/Blue Shield, to initiate a pilot telemedicine reimbursement model
• Involve national stakeholders in an ongoing conversation about telehealth, focused on pilots and models developed in Kansas City
• Organize a panel on telemedicine reimbursement for the Gigabit City Summit

The advances that could be made in providing medical services in the community — like proactive monitoring of patients with acute and chronic conditions and increasing service delivery to homebound patients — all depend on solving the problem of reimbursing providers for services delivered outside an office, clinic or hospital setting. Creating this model in Kansas City could change the face of health care across the country.